Exercising equipment



Nov. 11, 1958 c. E. PLANCK 2,859,967

7 EXERCISING EQUIPMENT Filed Aug. 14, 1956 FIG. 3

' INVENTOR CHARLES E. PLANCK ATTORNEY United States Patent C EXERCISIN EQUIPMENT Charles E. Planck, Arlington, Va.

Application August 14, 1956, Serial No. 603,920

6 Claims.. (Cl. 272-1) The present invention relates to amusement apparatus and more particularly to amusement apparatus which is used directly by a person by means of his own energy to demonstrate ability, agility, speed and the like particularly in handling his body for amusement or athletic contests as part of swimming and diving exercises.

Heretofore swimming pools have been equipped with various types of platforms and diving boards, and some pools have been provided with sliding boards with or without wheeled vehicles for supporting a person or persons for rapid entry into the water. Although some of the previously known equipment has been used there has been appreciable danger of persons being injured by one person falling on another and by the vehicles striking some swimmers in front of the sliding board. Also some sliding boards have been so high that there is danger of careless swimmers falling from the sliding board scaflold onto the tile or concrete walls of the pool and being seriously injured. Injuries have been sustained also in the use of the common diving board.

An object of the present invention is to provide amusement apparatus which will be attractive to swimmers and athletes and which will overcome the objections of the prior art structures.

Another object is to provide athletic equipment which may be used for competitive exhibitions to demonstrate abilities of persons of all'ages, sizes, and abilities and which may be used for'showing progress in skills and which may be measured directly by the user without requiringan observer with a stop watch or other measuring equipment.

A further object of the invention is to provide equipment for demonstrating centrifugal and gravitational forces on a person.

Other and further objects will be apparent as the description proceeds and upon reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a swimming pool with a laterally and upwardly curved runway extending from one side of the pool over the body of water;

Fig. 2 is a section taken substantially on line 22 of Fig. 1 illustrating the lateral curvature of the runway;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a modification of the invention in which the runway is of less height over the water of the pool;

Fig. 4 is a section taken on line 44 of Fig. 3 showing the rise of the runway over the water;

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view of one form of runway or track with a side wall and hand rail on the edge away from the water; and

Fig. 6 is a transverse section of another form of track or runway.

/ Briefly, the invention comprises a runway or track arranged adjacent a body of water along which runway or track a person may proceed by any suitable means such as by manual eifort, by a freely moving or powered vehicle or the like, and such track has an approach portion along which a person may increase his speed and which merges into an upwardly and outwardly curved portion extending over the body of water. This curved portion corresponds to the curve formed in a climbing turn of an airplane known as a Chendelle maneuver. As a person proceeds along the upwardly and outwardly curved portion the force of gravity and the centrifugal force react on the person producing a balance which retains the person on the curved portion until the resultant of the forces on the person causes him to drop into the body of water. Supporting means which are out of the path of the person using the equipment are provided for the runway and a guard rail or guard wall may be provided to prevent any possibility of a person falling off the equipment against any hard object.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, along the side 10 of a swimming pool having a body of water 11 therein, a track or runway is provided having an approach portion 12 shown as being generally straight. Such approach portion 12 may be the edge portion of the pool and merges into an upwardly and outwardly curved portion 13, the curve of which may be of generally helical conformation. The track surface'is of a nature to provide for the support of a person running or moving along such track at an appreciable speed which can be acquired by persons using the pool. Such track is preferably banked or inclined transversely like the curved portion of a conventional race-track. Such banking is so designed as to maintain a person on the track for an ap preciable distance so that the centrifugal force will be suflicient to counteract the force of gravity and the coefficient of friction between the track and the person will be such as to allow the person to run out along the track an appreciable distance until after the centrifugal force resulting from the speed may not be suificient to keep the person on the track. 7

In this form of the invention, the track is curved and inclined or banked to a desired degree so that a person will always fall off the track or will have to dive off the track toward the body of water in a manner to avoid contact of the persons body with any other portion of the track or of the supporting structure therefor and consequently there is practically no danger of injury from unskillful use of the equipment by inexperienced persons.

The approach portion 12 of the track may be the usual walkway along the side of the pool and the curved portion 13 may be so arranged as to smoothly merge from such walkway along the side of the pool. A hand rail 14 supported from posts 15 may be provided along a portion of the track such as along the curved portion 13 of the track on the side away from the water to prevent a person from falling off the track away from the body of water 11. The curved portion 13 of the track is suitably supported from piers, or structural truss cantilever supporting members 16, 17, and 18 which are mounted on the sides and end of the pool leaving a clear body of water in the pool below the track so that regardless of where the user drops or dives oil? the track, there can be no possibility of such user coming into contact with the supporting structure. It will be apparent that the supporting members will be made of sufiicient strength and rigidity to maintain the track in its position of use. Such supporting members may be of truss construction such as a truss formed of three or four longitudinal members and diagonal bracing for rigidity. It will be apparent that the supporting structure may take many different forms within the spirit of the invention, and the water below the curved portion is clear of all obstructions.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, it will be noted that the track or runway has an approach portion 19 which merges with an outwardly curved portion 20 supported from the side of the pool by truss cantilever supporting members 21, 22, and 23 and supported from the end by canti- Patented Nov. 11, 1958 lever members 24 and. 25, which may be similar to those hown in Figs. 1 and. 2. and the runw y may be bank as shown until the banking becomes substantially 90 to the horizontal and if the user can maintain sufficient speed itmay be possible for. such. user to run, 01f. the end 26, of:

the curved runway portiotn, Although the guard wall; is omitted for simplicity in these figuresjit; will be. obvious hat the guard wall: and/ or the handrail may beiaddedas. desired. I 1

A transverse sectionof-one; form of the trackway with. a hand rail. anda-guardlwall. is shown in Figure 5. The posts 15. are supportedin sockets 27' fixed by any suitable means to the side of the track away from the. water, and. in addition tov the hand rail or as. a substitute, therefor a. guard wall23 may bepriovidedextending upwardly from the trackway body 29.v on the side away from the water to prevent a persorrsfoot o r'body from slipping off such side thereby avoiding possibility of injury to users. If desired the guard .wall' 281mm! extend sufiiciently high to avoid the necessity of the hand rail 14fandits supporting posts 15. The .triackway may havega body 29 of wood or the like with a curved inner edge 30 and may be covered with glass fabric 31 impregnated with a plastic composition such as a polyester resin', or with any suitable preferably non-skid. coating.

The section shown in Fig. 6 illustrates another design ofVtrackway or runway in which a board 32 such as heavy plywood or layers of plywood may be secured together and covered with ,a material such as a glass fabric 33 impregnated with aresin. If desired scale markings 34 may be providedon the. track to serve as a gauge to indicate how far a person can run out. on the equipment.

,It will be apparent that the vtrack may be made of metal; or other suitable material and .that the approach may be arranged .to assist in providing momentum .to' a person and such approach may .be. inclineddownwa'rdly to assist a person inacquiring the necessary momentum to continue outward on .the'curved portion ofthe track. The track or runway of the present invention may be; mounted on piers or the like extending into or over a body of water and the invention is. therefore useful at beaches, on lakes, in the ocean or other bodies of water. The curved portion 20 may extend only laterally if desired-and the curvatureand banking selected so a,person will normally drop off before reaching the end. If desired, the momentum may be obtained by theexpedient of a slide and when the person slides a suflicient distance so that the force of gravity exceeds the "sustaining eifect of the centrifugal by a person, a laterally curved runway' portion extending from the approach runway portion. over the body ofwater,

7 said laterally curved runway portion having a downward transverse slope toward the body ofwater progressively increasing from the approach runway portion toward the far end of the runway whereby a person may progress along the approach runway portion into the curved runway portion and will finally drop from the curved run- Way portion into the .body'of water,'and' means to sup! port the curved runway portion over the body of water ina manner, to preclude-danger of injury to a person dropping from [the curved runway portion.

2. The invention uaccording to claim 1 in which guard means is. provided on the edge of the runway away from the,. lateral curve. c

3. The invention according to claim 1 in which the;

. body of water is a swimming pool and. theapproach runmarkings are provided along the runway for measuring the progress of persons using the equipment;

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 783,812 Ancilliotti V Feb. 28, 1905 1,586,222 s enn May2 5, 193.5

' FOREIGN PATENTS Australia 1 927 

